The Moon is about 4x10^8 m from the Earth and has a diameter of about 3.2x10^6 m
ID: 2005611 • Letter: T
Question
The Moon is about 4x10^8 m from the Earth and has a diameter of about 3.2x10^6 m. You want a radar antenna which covers the Mmoon with the central spot of its diffraction pattern. If the radar wavelength is 10 cm, what is the diameter of the radar antenna?a response to this was made at this link below
http://www.cramster.com/answers-feb-11/physics/diffraction-problem-moon-4x108-earth-diameter_1157580.aspx#post-1159548-comment-55184
but I don't understand where the 1.22*lamda/d came from
I especially don't understand where the 1.22 value came from
Explanation / Answer
diameter of the moon D = L ........... (1) diffraction by a circular aperture, sin = (1.22)/d for small angles, sin ˜ therefore, = (1.22)/d ........... (2) substitute the eq (2) in eq (1), we get D = L[(1.22)/d] ............... (3) distance between moon and earth , L = 4*108 m wavelength = 10 cm = 10*10-2 m diameter of the moon , D = 3.2*106 m from eq (3), the diameter of the radar antenna is d = L[(1.22)/D] .............. (4) substitute the given data in eq (4), we get d = (4*108 m)[(1.22)(0.1 m)/(3.2*106 m)] = 15.25 mRelated Questions
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